Lilypie - Kids Birthday

Lilypie - Fourth Birthday

Friday, September 27, 2013

At 12 pounds and 22 inches, Lauren is a very solid little girl. Newborn clothes lasted three weeks, but only because 0-3 month clothes were in storage until we moved. :-)

Baby girl has surprising head control - sometimes able to hold her head up for 30 seconds at a time! For such a young baby, it seems her motor skills are pretty advanced.

During the day, Lauren eats about every two hours, then catnaps until it’s time to eat again. At night, we’re averaging 5-hour stretches, but we’ve also been surprised by two 7-hour stretches! We are not experiencing your typical newborn sleep deprivation (yet!).

Lauren’s favorite things to look at are her big brother, lights, windows, and fans. She usually likes to snuggle, but sometimes if she’s fussy it’s because she just wants to stretch out.

She likes to be swaddled tightly, loves white noise from her sound machine, and is still undecided on the pacifier.

Laid-back and easy-going seem to be fitting adjectives at this point, except for the panicked scream that accompanies hunger. :-) This growing girl isn’t about to wait for a meal!

We are so in love with our precious girl and grateful for another healthy child! It’s been a great month!

Big guy is 32 months old today! At 35 inches and 31 pounds, Collin is still wearing size 2T clothes and he’s up to size 8 shoes. We’ve had some cool days and pulled out his 2T jeans from last winter, and many of them are almost too short. He’s growing, albeit slowly. :-)

This month probably tops the chart of most eventful months so far in Collin’s life. He became a big brother, moved to a new house, and had a week of being very sick with croup.

We usually don't do tv/movies, but watching shows on the ipad kept sick Collin still...

The big brother gig suits Collin very well, and he has transitioned more perfectly than we ever could have dreamed. He is a very sweet and compassionate little guy, and that definitely shows during his interactions with Lauren. He likes to hold her (in true-to-toddler-form 30-second increments, of course), kiss her, sing to her, and rub her head. He says “Hey little sister! I’m your big brother!” every single day, and he always knows where Lauren is and what she’s doing. Not to say being a big brother isn’t difficult sometimes, but Collin is doing a wonderful job!

We moved into our new house last week, and Collin has really taken that transition in stride as well. Being part of the construction process certainly helped, since he’s known where his room would be for the last couple months. Unfortunately Collin’s first real illness coincided with our move, so sleeping in his new room was tricky for the first several nights. Croup isn’t our friend, but our trooper made it through and is on the upswing now.

In addition to being full of big events, this month was also big in terms of speech developments. Collin now has /k/, /g/, and /z/ sounds! His articulation is improving dramatically and it’s exciting to hear. Some of our favorite words and phrases Collin has been using: “actually,” “in the whole world,” “what in world?,” "wasn't that cool?," “I can’t believe it,” and “I’d love to.”

Dancing continues to be a favorite activity of Collin’s, and the smile on his face while he’s jamming to music is infectious. He particularly likes to do spins and walk backwards while he’s dancing.

Collin also loves making music - drums, guitar, and flutes, mostly, plus a pretend violin or trumpet every once in awhile, and he still loves to sing. Favorite songs this month are the same as last - the ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle. There was actually a phase this month where Collin sang the ABCs twenty or thirty times a day, but we seem to be past that now.

Pretending takes up the largest part of our days. Mostly we build and fix. Sometimes it’s all pretend, but other times we make use of Collin’s tools and equipment. The most common projects right now are building a school, installing a mailbox, fixing a motorcycle, and fixing a fountain at the park. Collin continues to be very thorough and elaborate with his imaginary scenarios. He likes to say, "I'm hard-working guy!"

Besides pretending and being musical, we’ve also been spending quite a bit of time reading and playing with play-doh. Favorite books at the moment are “Green Eggs and Ham,” “The Three Little Pigs,” and “I Love You Because You’re You.” Collin makes cookies and cuts lines with his play-doh, and quite enjoys giving directions for things we can make with our color. I hadn’t thought much about it, but a mom friend commented on Collin’s insistence to keep the play-doh colors separate. Not mixing up the colors fits his personality pretty well. :-)

We’re proud of our guy and we love watching the ways he changes and grows every day. It’s an interesting time right now - like he has one foot in the crib and the other on his way to college. Big guy moments and little guy moments are all sweet and cherished. We love our Collin Cooper!